Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas Eve Celebrations!

Christmas is finally here and our celebrations have begun! We started our “Family of 5” celebration on Christmas Eve morning, where we exchanged gifts that we had gotten for each other. It was a fun morning together and we loved the family time! Merry Christmas to everyone!

-Abby, Emily & Ben

As always, we woke up early with excitement, so we were a bit groggy when we got started…

… but be rallied quickly!

The first gift of the morning was to Emily from Abby… Abby couldn’t WAIT to give it to her, and her gift didn’t disappoint! Emily LOVED her LaLaLoopsy rollerblades!

Abby was pretty excited to see that Emily had picked out rollerblades for her too!

There was an abundance of homemade ornaments from school this year, and Abby was particularly proud of her photo ornament (too bad mommy didn’t fix her hair a little nicer that morning…)

Daddy gets the girls some kind of jewelry every year to put in their jewelry boxes, and this year Abby got a watch to teach her how to tell time, and Emily got a pretty princess charm bracelet! Thanks Dad!

Ben got his special train from Daddy too! Hopefully someday, he’ll be able to collect a whole working set, just like daddy did when he was a kid!

Daddy’s kiddos: Too bad Emily was in quite a mood…

Abby worked very hard on sewing a special toy for Ben… Great job Abby!

Mommy & Abby made a special version of Monopoly for Daddy called” “Beach-opoly”. She came up with some great stuff, and we can’t wait to play! Abby even helped cut out all of the “Beach Bucks”!

Abby was VERY excited about Grandpa Hawk & Grandma Nancy’s gift!

Emily’s favorite gift of the morning was her “Alice” ornament from Mommy & Daddy!

After present opening, it was time to play with the new loot! Rollerblading proved to be MUCH easier to do on the carpeting!

Abby loved checking out Daddy’s new scientific microscope almost as much as Daddy did!

Before leaving for our next celebration in Long Island, it was time to pack up and say goodbye to Pinocchio for another year. He even left a note to say goodbye to us!

We stopped at Dancey-Dancey & Pop-Pop’s house on Christmas Eve night to have dinner with our cousins and have a gift exchange.

Can you believe who showed up at their house again this year?!?!? We can’t believe Santa had time in his busy schedule to stop by!

For a little 5 1/2 year old who was CERTAIN that this wasn’t the REAL Santa Clause, her expressions showed that there was a glimmer of belief left in her…

Everyone’s reaction was a bit different…

Emily was pretty shocked when Santa asked if everyone had been good this year, and wanted to make sure no one had been out playing on their roof in the rain… It’s a god thing she made it onto the good list!

Santa is cool from a distance, but there were quite a few reservations all around when it actually came down to talking to him!

This gift exchange proved to be quite exciting too with all the LaLaLoopsy loot! Thank you Dancey-Dancey & Pop-Pop!

When we arrived at Nannie & Grandpa’s house late that night, we realized we had to go to bed right away, because Santa was going to have a LONG night ahead of him! Just look at all those stockings!

We had just enough time to put out some milk and cookies for the big guy and get to sleep!

All Mommy’s & Daddy’s ever want for Christmas is a silent night… unfortunately, not ALL nights can be that way!!!